It's not that easy to replace an old face
by Pianoninja
Summary: Jac is just over 6 months pregnant when she gets some distressing news about one of her oldest colleagues one morning which means there will be a new face on the scene. However what will be the consequences when he tries to upset the natural order that is Darwin ward?
1. Chapter 1

**I had this idea a while ago and I've been writing bits on and off for about two weeks because it just wouldn't work out the way I wanted it to. I'm still not 100% happy with it but I don't like to scrap anything. Please enjoy it and give me your feedback and opinions. :) **

Jac sat in her office one morning, yawning slightly and caressing the tiny life inside her as she flicked through her early morning email list. Elliot wasn't in yet but that wasn't unusual , he was probably stocking up on dohnuts. There was nothing exciting in her inbox, some woman in HR just gave birth to twins, she shuddered at the thought. AAU were doing a collection for Sacha and Rachel, she made a mental note to make an anonimous donation to her best friend. Hanssen was instilling another new policy, she began to skim through the long winded explanation but was interrupted suddenly when Jonny burst through the door

"Don't they teach you to knock at nurseing school?" she questioned sarcastically, glareing at him. He didn't say anything in reply, just looked at her sympathetically, like she was a homeless puppy. "What do you want?" she added impatiently. He closed the door and walked towards her desk, she watched him intently as he did so.

"Jac..." This was weird, whatever was going on must have been serious for Jonny to be sympathetic. "It's Elliot" he began slowly, trying his best to think of the least stressful way to say this. "He was bought in this morning...he went into cardiac arrest at home last night, the milkman found him this morning" he stopped and looked at Jac who didn't appear to be displaying any sort of emotion. She looked back at him with an expression that could be described as confusion

"But...he's ok? I mean, he's going to be alright?" Jonny's heart shattered as the words hit him, he tried his best to conjure up the right words to make sure she stayed calm.

"He's stable..." that was never a good turn of phrase "they're waiting for his blood pressure to come down before they can operate." She placed a hand over her face momentarily, processing what he had just told her, then a memory pricked up from the back of her mind and stood, frozen in shock for a second before saying quietly

"...he told me he didn't feel right before he left yesterday...and I ignored him..." her wide green eyed filled with sparkling, regretful tears "he told me he was ill, I didn't do anything..." Jonny instictively walked round the consultant's desk and knelt at her feet, taking her hand in his

"don't you dare say what I know you're thinking Jac, this isn't your fault" he spoke gently. She looked up at him as a tear fell down her cheek

"...but...what if I could've prevented this...?" Jonny found that he was quite peterbed by the state the icy Consultant was in, he's never really had to deal with an emotional Jac Naylor before...hormonal yes, but she'd never shown that she'd been truly upset about anything, Elliot obviously meant more to her than she let on. Unable to watch the mother of his child struggle on her own through her feelings he pulled her to her feet, embracing her into a protecting hug and kissing her gently on top of the head.

"Right" he whispered caringly into her ear "I need to go and see Mo, you wipe your tears and then we can go and see him, see if they've made any progress. yeah?" She nodded and released her loose grip on him and he walked out the door, closing it firmly behind him.

Mo was sat at the nurses station on the phone to someone from Obs and Gynae trying to flirt her way into gettiing an immediate consult for a patient when she saw a rather traumatised Jonny walked over to her.

"Eh yeah sure, listen i'll have to call you back, sorry, bye" she ended the conversation swiftly and put the phone down "Jonny Mac?" she approached the conversation carefully "Did you tell her?" He nodded and sat down on the chair opposite her,

"She didn't take it too well...um...she cried..." Mo looked back at him in utter disbelief

"What? Are you sure it's not hayfever?" she chuckled to herself at the thought

"Mo! Don't be stupid, this is Jac Naylor we're talking about...even pollen's scared of her" he laughed a little too, trying to make light of the situation. Mo smiled at her friend

"Well, you've got to remember she'll have hormones all over the place at the moment, she probably doesn't know what she's feeling" she lowered her voice slightly towards the end of the sentence, indicating to Jonny that Jac was walking up behind him. He stood up and turned around to face her, her long orban hair was hiding her pale, tear stained face and he could've cried at the sight of her. Mo smiled sympathetically at the consultant who returned the gesture, then they head off towards ITU.

They stepped into the whitewashed room, startled at the sight they were greeted by. The normally jolly Proffessor lay beneath the hospital sheets, his face without emotion and his skin a sickly grey colour. Jac stepped towards the bed and looked over the old man, for the first time scrutinising his ancient features. She analysed the monitor next to his bed, taking in his BP and running it through the confines of her surgeon's brain, trying to stay proffessional, but this was Elliot, he meant so much to her, and things weren't looking good. Jonny stood next to her as she got to grips with what was happening, ready to support her should the walls come crumbling down again.

They heard the door behind them creak open and a succession of steady footsteps approaching, they turned around to see Henrik Hanssen looming over them

"Can I help you Ms Naylor? Nurse Maconie?" Jonny sensed that Jac still didn't feel up to talking much so he looked to Hanssen and replied

"We just came to see how Proffessor Hope was doing, as no doubt you know, he and Ms Naylor are old friends." He squeezed the consultant's shoulders lightly as he spoke, she looked up at Hanssen with concern written in to her face and quietly inquired

"how is he doing?...In your opinion?" The CEO almost felt a new sense of empathy for the red haired surgeon but she was a medical professional, there was no point sugar coating things

"his recovery is indefinite, at this moment in time his blood pressure is still much to high to operate. However, it is coming down and if it continues at this rate we should be able to operate by tomorrow. Obviously I can not predict the outcomes of the procedure, as you well know there is an equal chance of either situation occuring." Jac's face contorted into something resembling confusion, she looked down at her hands which were subconsciously resting beneath her bump, cradling the unborn life in her arms. After a few moments contemplation she turned her gaze back to Hanssen,

"What do you mean we? Who is operating?" Both Hanssen and Jonny could see where this was going, Jonny decided to approach the situation carefully

"Jac, you know whoever it is will do the best they can right?" Hanssen gave the nurse a patronizing look of sympathy and simply said

"I shall be operating on Proffessor Hope." He stopped as Jac tried to interrupt

"You? You're not a CT surgeon! I could do a..." He gestured for her to be quiet and continued

"I shall be operating on Proffessor Hope, with the help of a specialist CT locum, Mr Keenan." She looked back at him and then at Jonny with an expression of hurt across her face

"...but" Hanssen stopped her once again,

"I won't have you argue with me Ms Naylor, this case is much personal for you to work on. Now, I believe you have got a ward to run, in the absence of Proffessor Hope I am appointing you lead consultant on Darwin." She looked back at him dumbfoundedly, any other day she would have been jumping for joy at this promotion but in these circumstances even the ice queen Jac Naylor couldn't be happy for herself. "If there's nothing else..." he looked towards the door behind him. Jonny placed his arm around Jac's shoulders and took the liberty of leading her out on to the ward himself.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry it's been so long again guys, I've just been really down lately with going back to school and everything, so I'm finding it really difficult to write anything. Anyway, I think I'm nearly over it and I've got some good ideas of where I'm going with this so just bare with me and please keep reading. Enjoy! xx **

On returning to the ward Jac quickly shook herself free from the nurse's arms and made her way as quickly as possible back to her office. She sat down slowly behind her desk and firmly pressed the heel of her hand into the edge of the desk almost trying to force away the tears still building in her eyes. Taking a deep breath inwards she began to click onto various files to try and sink herself into her work and forget about the whole awful situation. Not long after she had started typing up some patient notes there was a faint knock on her wooden office door, from behind her desk she called firmly

"What." A small voice called from behind the barrier between them

"Um...there's a patient out her for you..." Jac sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger and asked hopefully

"Where's Miss Effanga?" The voice replied

"She's in the theatre...sorry." The consultant heaved herself wearily from her desk chair and marched out on to the ward to find a middle aged man, sat up in bed and chatting up one of the nurses. She sighed again and took his wrist under her fingers, taking a mental note of his pulse before he flinched away. She picked up his notes, skimming them quickly and said

"So Mr...Royce you've been suffering from shortness of breath?" The man turned away from her silently as another nurse walked up behind her.

"uh, Ms Naylor, Mrs Clarke needs a chest drain fitted" she informed her nervously. Jac turned round, running her fingers through her golden hair. She placed his notes back at the end of the bed and nodding towards the patient said

"I'll be back in a moment" before making her way quickly across the ward. While she was fitting the chest drain another nurse came and told her about another patient with blood in her catheter, then an F1 handed her a two foot thick essay asking her to mark it for tomorrow, one of the F2s from Keller called up asking for a cardiothoracic consult, the day kept going like this until around two o'clock when she finally returned to Mr Royce he was creating a bit of a problem.

There were two nurses and an F1 trying to restrain him as he tried to storm off the ward,

"Mr Royce! Will you please get back into bed!" She said sternly but calmly as she walked over.

"NO! You have left me in this rotten hospital bed all day why you strut around like god knows what! Yeah, I see you, prancing around this place, ordering people about like they're your bloody servants! You disgust me you, you successful doctors don't even care about your patients!" The man was getting extremely agitated and Jac took a step backwards, he was very well built and he was seconds away from ripping out the drips and wires keeping him close to the bed. Her voice was risen lightly as she said authoritatively

"I need you to get back into bed sir, you're only causing yourself more harm than good." He finally pulled away from the people trying to restrain him, tearing out the canular in his hand and flying towards Jac, she felt stumble backwards as she tried to get away from him, suddenly Jonny was by her side as she found herself sat on the floor in the corner of the ward while Mr Royce was dragged off by security.

"Jac?" He took her shaking hand in his as she sat almost curled in a ball on the floor while everyone on the ward watched her. She went to stand up and swayed slightly into the scottish nurse who grabbed hold of her arm and placed his other hand on her back. She gave him an exasperated look of annoyance and marched over to the nurses station, sitting down slowly and resting her head in her hands. Almost straight away another nurse rushed over, who obviously hadn't seen the commotion, calling

"Ms Naylor, the patient in bed six is crashing!" Jonny stood up and opened his mouth as if to say something, she knew he would be fussing and tell her no to go so she just got up and did her best to get there as quickly as she could. The patient was flat-lining so she took over chest compressions from the F1 and signaled for a defibrillator. She took the paddles off the trolley with one quick swipe and with a loud and decisive

"clear!" Sent a shot of powerful volts through the old man's chest. Nothing.

"Again, clear!" Still nothing. She looked around her, trying to clear her mind from the faintness she felt creeping up on her.

"Clear!" He was gone. She threw the paddles back down as a nurse called

"Time of death, 14:36."

She left the room abruptly with Jonny close on her heel as yet another nurse ran up to her,

"Mr Royce has collapsed again..." She sighed and went to walk in that direction. Then an F1 came trotting up babbling

"ah, Ms Naylor, I need to talk to you about my assessment tomorrow." She gave him a look of disgust and exaustion. Then yet another nurse came out of the room behind her

"uh, should I get someone else to call his next of kin or-" She was interrupted abruptly

"SHUT UP!" Jac found herself screaming above the muttering of her colleagues "JUST STOP IT! I CAN'T DO THIS!" Jonny placed his hand on her shoulder only for it to be shrugged off again as she walked away abruptly, "I CAN'T RUN A WARD ON MY OWN OK?" Everyone could see she was battling internally to try and hold the tears in, quieter this time she added "Darwin needs Elliot" and practically ran off to ITU.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry it's been just about close to forever since my last update, I've had so much homework and now I have a Spanish presentation to do and loads of analysis, a good few essays to write...anyway i'll stop babbling now, hope you enjoy! xx **

She ran into the room quickly and shut the door, leaning up against it firmly with her head buried in the palms of her hands. Unfortunately for the consultant she failed to notice, as she hurried in, the hidden figure on the other side of the professor's hospital bed. As she stood there taking deep breaths and trying to sort herself out the the big friendly consultant came over and placed his hand on her shoulder. She gasped in shock and quickly removed her hands from her face, attempting to wipe the few stray tears away. When she realized it was only her best friend Sacha that was witnessing her weakness he spread his arms and made no hesitation in pulling her into a trade mark bear hug. She lightly wrapped her arms back around the consultant, layed her head gently on his shoulder and tightly shut her eyes for a moment. As the pair moved away from each other Sacha carefully tucked a stray piece of hair behind Jac's ear and asked her, whilst smiling cheerfully,  
"what's going on Jac?" She shook her head lightly as she made an attempt to removed the remainder of her smudged mascara from under her eyes with the edge of her forefinger whilst looking in the screen of her iphone.

Before he could try and pull it out of her or she could muster up some half-arsed excuses they were interrupted by a faint coughing coming from the bed behind them. They both turned round simultaneously to see Elliot's body shudder slightly as his eyes darted around the room taking in his surroundings. Jac rushed to his side, taking his hand lightly and speaking unusually softly to him  
"Elliot? You're ok..." she turned and looked at Sacha, he got the idea and came around to the other side of the bed to help take the professor off the ventilator that was acting as a barricade to him speaking. A small and croaky voice came from below them  
"...wh..what...happened?" Jac smiled at him with a look of something resembling empathy and began to explain  
"you went into cardiac arrest last night, they found you this morning...I'm so sorry I didn't listen to you Elliot..." she diverted her gaze down to the floor regretfully and felt as he squeezed her hand and whispered  
"Jac, don't worry." She smiled back at him and they all stood in silence for a moment until Sacha spoke firmly but quietly  
"right, you should get some rest and i'll send Hanssen down to talk to you" he nodded towards Elliot who agreed and then looked up at Jac and jokingly said "and we are going to go and have a good old best friend chat!"

Jac had taken refuge in the guest chair placed next to the bed so now had to once again heave herself up, as she did her vision blurred considerably and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut as Sacha quickly slipped behind her and placed a hand on her back. "Naylor...when was the last time you ate?" Sacha had this ability to see straight through her and see what everyone else couldn't which frustrated her at times but in the depths of her stomach she knew she needed him.  
"Don't start Levy" he smiled back at her hooked his arm under hers  
"come on you, let me buy you lunch eh?" the pair turned to leave the room and after saying goodbye to Elliot they attempted to sneak into the lift and get downstairs to the cafe. Unfortunately for Jac they were stopped by a familiar sound of Mo and Jonny calling her, she turned on her heel and stared straight at the nurse.  
"What do you want Maconie?" Sacha nudged her lightly with his elbow as she spoke and whispered jokingly  
"oi be nice, he's your gonna be your babysitter for the next fourteen years." He and Mo laughed as 'the two J's' glared back at them which only made them laugh more at how alike they were. Jonny took Jac's arm gently and pulled her to the side of the corridor  
"are you ok?" the concern in his voice actually touched Jac but she shook it off and replied simply  
"yes Jonny." He shook his head exasperatedly  
"come on Jac, not even you can pretend that didn't happen" he gestured towards the ward where her little outburst had taken place, "it's ok to ask for help now and then you know." He then realized that she wasn't actually listening to him anymore and had noticed she had paled considerably in the last minute, "Jac?" His voice sounded panicked as she swayed backwards again, luckily Sacha jumped behind her and happily supported her weight in his arms. Mo hurried over and passed her a bottle of water that she'd been carrying as she came out of theater. As she slowly sipped the water Sacha realized that having all these people crowding around her probably wasn't helping, he shifted his hold on Jac so he was supporting her with one arm around her shoulder and then he spoke to Jonny calmly  
"right, you and Mo should get back to the ward, I'll take Ms fainty pants Naylor here to get some lunch, as I knowing her she probably hasn't eaten anything substantial all day, and we'll come and find you in bit." He looked over to the ward for a moment and decided they could do without any more chaos so he nodded towards Mo and said "Mo, you're in charge yeah?" The pair nodded although not so sure.

Jonny and Mo quickly rushed back to the hugely understaffed ward and found themselves chatting as they rushed around taking all the patient's obs and essentially doing Jac and Elliot's jobs.  
"So what's going on with Jac?" Mo inquired trying to sound concerned rather than nosy. Jonny sighed as he could see straight through her  
"I don't know Mo, why don't you ask her?...In fact why can't you just be nice to her for once?" Mo found her self quite taken a back by the nurse's sudden anger towards her and replied sounding quite irritated  
"woah, well I'm sorry Jonny Mac but have you actually met the woman!? She's not exactly the easiest person to get along with!" This just made Jonny more angry and he found himself getting louder and more agitated  
"Did you not see what happened today!? Just give her a break for gods sake Mo, I though you of all people would be supporting her through this pregnancy!" Jonny's words hit the registrar harder than she'd expected as he reminded her of the baby she carried, she could feel the tears welling up behind her deep brown eyes and she made an effort not to make eye contact with anyone as she attempted to walk away. Jonny however was hit with a extreme feeling of guilt as what he'd just said sunk in, he quickly caught up with his best friend and grabbed her by them arm. "Mo...I'm sorry, it's just with everything that's happened today well...y'know, everyone's a bit on edge, I didn't mean anything by it you know that right?" She looked up at him and smiled understandingly as he put his arms out and pulled her into a hug.  
"It's fine Jonny, I get it, you're just worried about Jac, anyone would be."


End file.
